BOB MONCUR feels the desire of the current crop of Toon stars to become Premier League players once again can be the driving force of their promotion bid.

The former skipper has been impressed by new arrivals such as Mike Williamson, Patrick Van Aanholt and Wayne Routledge so far, but also believes that senior players like Alan Smith, Kevin Nolan and Steve Harper still possess more than enough hunger to win back the Magpies’ top-flight place.

With 19 games to go in the Coca-Cola Championship, Moncur expects the mettle of United to be fully tested in a month which sees Newcastle travel to Derby, Swansea, Reading and Watford.

Moncur told the Chronicle: “It’s too early to start talking about what we’re going to do if we win promotion, but what you can say is that the players we’ve got here now are hungry and ready to prove a point.

“The players who are still here from last season want to prove people wrong and show that those who wrote them off were being too hasty.

“And then you have the players who have arrived – like Williamson and Routledge – who will want to show the football world they are good enough to take a place on the big stage.

“They also know that if they don’t put in the performances in the next 19 games, then they might not have the chance to play there again.”

United boss Chris Hughton has been impressed with his Toon back four in the last two games with back-to-back clean sheets coinciding with the arrival of Mike Williamson.

Williamson has had two steady games for the black-and-whites against Crystal Palace and Leicester City, and this has been complemented by the arrival of Van Aanholt from Chelsea on loan.

Moncur said: “I think there’s been a bit of doom and gloom about of late and people like Mike arrived with no expectations.

“But he’s come in and on his debut I thought he was the best player on pitch, give or take a few moments where he went for balls he probably wasn’t entitled to.

“That was just because he wanted to impress, but he followed up with another good show at Leicester. He linked up well with Coloccini so we’ll see what happens and if he can develop a partnership.”